Stories

In Their Own Words

Unexpected Talents

“I was shocked when I heard the director of the Pyin Oo Lwin studio ask me to start coming to the AWR studio,” says Hla Yee.

Mrs. Yee is one of the very, very few Shan Adventist church members in Myanmar. She is a widow, sadly, with two daughters. Her husband, Tun Bo, was a Global Mission worker who passed away in 2006, leaving her with “an empty heart and life.” But she thanks God that he showed her the true God and led her to marry a man who worked for Him.

Yee was not highly educated academically, only having the opportunity to attend up to 4th grade in a government school, so she worked as a janitor in the Upper Myanmar Mission office. She had learned traditional Shan literature in her childhood; that was the only skill she had, but she did not know how to utilize it in her life.

At AWR’s Pyin Oo Lwin studio, when the time came to start production in the Shan language, the leaders began looking to recruit a program speaker who had technical skills, language skills, and also theological skills. But we found none in the Adventist church.

When I was asked by Thang Pau to provide a computer for the new Shan producer, I double-checked his request. I had a big question for him: “Does the Shan producer know computers?” That was my first question.

But, as I found out later, Yee attended computer training for six months, and she can now record, edit, and mix programs on her own. We do not know how God blessed her to learn computer skills so quickly!

Two months ago, I received an e-mail from the treasurer of the Upper Myanmar Mission, Mr. Gin Lam Cin. He had gotten a call from a Shan language listener. The listener described the effectiveness of the Adventist message he had heard in the Shan language program and wanted to know more about the truth and the true church. He also had praise for Yee, who had explained the love of God and His message on the air.

As I read his e-mail, I felt that the Holy Spirit had been working through Mrs. Hla Yee’s voice to share the love of God in her own language.

The Shan people make up the biggest ethnic group in Myanmar, having eight percent of the total population. Ninety-nine percent of them are Buddhist.

We praise God for His guidance in the production of our Shan programs and give thanks for the listener who has benefited from the message of God.